Chapter : Hell Hath No Fury Part 1
"Agent Beale?" A voice that was mechanical and distorted questioned when Chloe picked up her phone. Chloe knew that type of voice. It was one she had heard many times. It never meant anything good. It was usually someone with a hostage wanting a ransom, or anonymously giving a threat. And it always meant trouble.
"Yes?"
"I have your girl."
Chloe felt her heart plummet to her feet and her eyes darted around the room, trying to calm her suddenly wild and untamed thoughts. She ran down the hall to where Emily's tech lab was set up. Time was of the essence and she knew the precious seconds on the phone had to be used wisely.
"Who is this?" Chloe spoke slowly into the phone while snapping her fingers at Emily to get her attention. Emily looked up with confusion and looked intently at Chloe as she mouthed the words 'trace this call.' The frantic look on Chloe's face didn't make Emily second guess but instead started typing away furiously on her computer.
"That is not important. I just wanted you to know that I have her. I'm looking for information. And if she refuses to give it to me? She will die."
Chloe looked at Emily desperately for a sign of progress and Emily held up one finger, pleading for Chloe to keep the call going just a little longer.
"How do I know you're not lying?"
There was a clicking sound, followed by something muffled and then a voice.
"Chloe?! Chloe! It-" The voice was unmistakably Beca's but then there was another muffled sound and then silence.
"Is that proof enough?" The garbled, mechanical voice returned.
"What information do you want?" Chloe tried to keep her voice even so as to not betray the fear and anger that was coursing through her veins.
"The information I want, Agent Beale. You can't give me. But perhaps your father might."
"Tell me what you want and I'll get it." Chloe kept talking when Emily motioned she didn't have a lock yet.
"Talk to your father, Agent Beale. Ask him about any secrets he has from you. I will be calling again. And I'd like to speak with him. Otherwise I will just have to work on your little girlfriend until then."
"What do you want?!" Chloe asked angrily and then slammed her hand against Emily's desk when the line went dead. "Did you get anything?"
"It looks like it was coming from New York. One of the docks." Emily pointed at her screen with a large circle around a general area of the New York coast.
"There's no way to get a more accurate spot?"
"Not without more time to trace, Agent Beale, I'm sorry." Emily looked worried up at Chloe. "What was it about anyway?"
"Someone has Beca." Chloe looked helplessly at the screen before rushing back out of Emily's lab and jogging quickly to Aubrey's office.
"Aubrey. We need to go to New York." Chloe said breathlessly as Aubrey looked up with confused shock.
"Why?"
"Someone kidnapped Beca. They want some sort of information that apparently only her or my dad can give away. Emily traced the call to a general spot in New York. But its at one of the docks."
"Chloe, I-"
"Aubrey, you have to help me." Chloe could sense Aubrey was about to give an excuse why they couldn't just up and go at that moment.
"Chloe, I want to. And I will. But we can't just go storming into New York without a plan or without intel. We don't know where she is, who has her, or what they even want. We need a better plan."
"It's Beca." Chloe breathed out heavily. Aubrey could only look at her with sympathy and concern. She rubbed her forehead for a moment before speaking again.
"Let me talk to Captain Littner. And you try to talk to your dad, okay?"
"He won't do shit." Chloe mumbled angrily, feeling like it was somehow his fault for this whole situation.
"Okay, just let me make some calls. Try to get some information. Why don't you go to Beca's and see if you can find anything there, okay? See if there was any evidence left behind if that was where they grabbed her." Aubrey placed her hand on Chloe's arm to try and settle the woman down. "We'll find her."
Chloe looked at her with a look that betrayed her lack of confidence. She sniffed quickly, forcing herself not to cry yet as she returned to Emily. Emily was working tirelessly at tracking an untrackable source. Chloe wasn't making it any easier hovering over her shoulder and breathing down her neck.
"Agent Beale?" Emily paused and looked at Chloe nervously. "I promise I am doing the best I can. But it is really not helping with you standing right there watching my every move."
"Right." Chloe glanced down at Emily and took a step back, knowing he needed to let Emily focus without excess anxiety. "I need to go make a call. Just...keep working."
"I'll do everything I possibly can." Emily gave her a small smile and nod before returning her focus to her work station.
"Thanks...I really do appreciate it Emily." Chloe gave her a weak smile in return and then disappeared to go to her car to call her father.
"Chloe, I know you think I'm always mastermining a way to make you miserable and ruin your happiness." General Beale said over the phone after Chloe had explained the situation and argued with her about any knowledge he had. "But I don't know what this kidnapper wants. And I certainly didn't orchestrate for Beca to be taken away mysteriously. Though I have my disapproval, I would never do something like that to you or one of my agents. I will do what I can."
"What was the special ops mission you offered her?"
"You know I can't-"
"That has to be it, Dad!" Chloe growled into the phone. "What else is there that only you or Beca would know. What is it? Why is it so important that they'd want to kidnap her?"
There was silence, followed by an audible sigh. "I will do what I can, Chloe."
"Yeah, sure." Chloe laughed darkly, sniffling. She hung up the phone before she could let her father hear her cry. She threw the phone onto her passenger seat, held onto the steering wheel and dropped her head as she finally let the sobs she had been holding back flow freely. She gave in to her fear and sadness and aching pain in her chest. Her body shook as she let herself cry the hardest she'd cried since her former partner's death.
After a few minutes she finally started to calm down and began taking deep breaths. She pushed against the steering wheel to sit up straight and take a deep breath. She opened her eyes as she slowly exhaled. Her shaky hands flipped the visor down so she could look in the little mirror. Her makeup was running everywhere, her eyes were puffy and red, and she looked like she hadn't slept in days and it had only been an hour since she knew Beca was missing.
"Get your shit together." She spoke sternly at her reflection. "You will find her. She will be back home and she will be fine. But you can't crumble. You have to find her. And you have to be strong to do that. So get it together, Beale." She sniffed one last time and wiped her eyes before putting the car in drive.
Beca slowly opened her eyes but all around her was darkness. She felt the cold metal of restraints on her wrists behind her back. Her feet were also bound to both legs of the metal chair she was in. Her mouth was dry and her stomach was empty. She wasn't sure how long she had been out but she guessed it had been a few hours. Her brain internally cursed her for somehow letting someone get the drop on her and kidnap her without her seeing anything.
The door opened and Beca was hit with a sharp burst of light for a moment before the door slammed close again. A tall figure approached her wearing a mask.
"Who are you?" Becas' voice cracked from hoarseness as she tried to search for anything identifying.
"Tell me about the special ops mission General Beale offered you." The mask apparently acted as a voice distortion apparatus as well.
"I don't know-" Her words were cut off with a loud shriek when a scorching metal was jammed into her side. She tried to stop the painful shouts but she couldn't stop. When the glowing red end of the iron bar was finally pulled away she was panting for breath.
"I can do this for a very long time, Agent Mitchell."
"Fuck you." Beca spat before she screamed again in agony at the sudden electrical current sent through her body. The figure loomed over her, holding the taser. Although Beca couldn't see their face, she was positive they were grinning at her pain.
They finally removed the taser and Beca was once again gasping for breath in pain. Beca watched as they walked over to what she assumed was a table and set down a heavy back that rattled with all sorts of tools she didn't care to see.
"I think we're going to have quite a bit of fun, Agent Mitchell. The stubborn ones are always my favorite." The laugh that came from behind the mask was chilling, but Beca did her best to hide her fear. She watched through the darkness as her captor arranged the contents of the duffle bag on the table. She swallowed hard, doing her best to not dwell on everything that was about to happen.
Chloe arrived at Beca's apartment feeling hopeless. She didn't want to go inside and see everything that would remind her of Beca. She didn't want to search for clues and end up finding nothing. She didn't want to see the bed they'd slept in, made love in, and held each other in. She didn't want to search anymore, she just wanted Beca back.
But Chloe entered the small apartment anyway, planning to scour every inch of the residence even if they'd have a team come in later and do the same. No one was as trustworthy as herself in searching for clues for her girlfriend's whereabouts in her opinion.
What she entered into, she wasn't expecting. Rather than a completely ransacked apartment, it was spotless. Well, as spotless as Beca Mitchell's apartment could be. Even the empty glass of whiskey with a thin ring of amber fluid at the bottom sat on the table just where Beca had left it presumably the night before. It didn't seem like anything had been touched. Chloe wondered if she had been taken while walking out. She couldn't help but have a gut feeling this wasn't a very professional job.
Professional or not, Beca was missing. And that truth stung hard in Chloe's chest as she mindlessly wandered around the vacant apartment. It was sparsely decorated as it was, but without Beca, it felt even more empty. Chloe swallowed hard as she began her own search for the documents that she was confident were the reason behind the kidnapping. There weren't many places for Beca to hide them, so Chloe worried they might be hidden somewhere else and she'd have no idea.
Chloe made her way upstairs and saw the empty bed. Beca never made her bed, thought it was a waste of time. So it still looked slept in. Chloe could picture Beca lying on her side, Chloe's arm wrapped around her. Her eyes blinked back tears as she shuffled over to her side and sank down onto the mattress.
She pulled Beca's pillow to her chest. It still smelled like her. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. Her eyes were heavy with the weight of worry and tears she shed in the car. She pulled the pillow to her chest as if she were holding Beca close.
"I will find you." Chloe whispered into the quiet void. "And you'll be fine. And we're going to move in together. Build a home, a life. We're going to have a future. No one will take you from me. I promise. I'm going to find you." Her heavy eyes couldn't help but close as she clutched to the pillow for dear life, drifting off for a moment of sleep.
Chloe woke later to her phone ringing. She sat up quickly, gaining her bearings. It took a moment for her to remember where she was and remember what was happening. She silently reprimanded herself for falling asleep during key hours of searching for Beca. She saw Aubrey's name flash on her phone. She rubbed her eyes, ran a hand through her hair, and cleared her throat.
"Aubrey?"
"We have a jet and we're going to New York. We're going to get her back, Chloe. I promise."
Beca had actually managed to almost fall asleep. Whatever was covering her head made it permanently dark and her body was exhausted from hours of torture. Her mind almost slipped into unconsciousness until the door burst open once again.
"Agent Mitchell."
"You're wasting your time. I'm not telling you anything and my team is going to find me and you'll wish you'd never fucking touched me."
"Ah yes, your beloved Agency." Beca could hear her captor fiddling around with more tools on the other side of the room. "I guess you'll be interested to know it was one of your agents who requested my services in getting this information out of you. Seems to me your Agency is rather traitorous."
Beca was at a loss for words for a moment.
"You're lying." She said weakly.
"I don't care if you believe me or not. It won't change the fact that I'm making a generous commission on this. And It won't change what I have to do. Now, hold still, this might sting a little."
And before Beca could utter a retort, she let out a pained scream to the delight of her captor.
The flight to New York wasn't long, but Jesse was insufferable the entire time. He kept going over protocols and who they needed to call in New York with information. He kept not so subtly telling Chloe to not get her hopes up or to prepare for the worst. That with each passing minute the likelihood of finding her safe dwindled. He was sitting across the aisle with Aubrey while Chloe worked with Emily to be productive and she'd had just about enough of the incessant rambling of his voice.
"Jesse, are you doing anything actually productive? Because I'm trying to work here and do my job. You sitting there yapping like a puppy while sipping on your coffee isn't helping." Chloe practically snarled at him from across the jet. "I know the reality of the situation and I don't need your voice like nails on a chalkboard reminding me of it."
"Chloe." Aubrey's tone was warning, yet understanding.
"I'm your superior." Jesse turned his head to chastise Chloe across the way.
"Then act like it. Do something to help." Chloe ignored his gaze and continued searching on her laptop with the directions she took from Emily.
Jesse's wounded pride made his nostrils flare and he turned his attention to Aubrey.
"She's your best friend. Maybe remind her of the chain of command we have here."
"Yes." Aubrey quirked an eyebrow as she read through a few files, pointedly avoiding eye contact. "As long as you remember that I'm your superior, too."
The car ride to the docks was tense. Emily was doing her best to work on her small laptop while suffering through a bumpy ride. Chloe and Jesse kept exchanging irritated looks. And Aubrey was making calls but ultimately feeling like she was just chasing her tail with the limited progress in their investigation.
Chloe was the first one out when they reached the docks and instinctually started jogging, like she might suddenly see Beca and her kidnapper and chase after them. Emily caught up, laptop balanced in one hand while the other typed as quickly as possible while balancing her bag of tech equipment over her shoulder.
"So now what's the big plan, Agent Beale." Jesse said, almost smugly. "Do you know if she's on a boat? In a warehouse? Where should we look?"
Luckily for Chloe, before she could spit out a snarky come back, her phone rang.
"Agent Beale."
"Hello, Agent. Were you able to arrange for your father to speak to me?"
Chloe waited a moment, watching as Emily realized and quickly worked to trace the call again.
"He wasn't as compliant as you probably wish."
"Well, that is quite the shame. Your girlfriend is being stubborn as well."
"Chloe! We're on a boat! We're-AH!" Chloe heard the faint sound of Beca's voice before a thudding noise.
"She's been quite fun I'll have to admit." The kidnapper came back, sounding as amused as possible through the voice changer. "The feisty ones are always fun."
"Listen to me you asshole." Chloe growled through the phone, sparing a glance at Emily who looked thoroughly excited like she might be close to finding the trace. "Every single thing you've done to her or will do to her I will do to you but ten times worse. I'm going to find you and you will only be able to wish I killed you."
"Promises, promises, Agent Beale. I am paid to keep her hostage for one more day, and then-"
"Who's paying you?" Chloe barked.
"You aren't the brightest little agent if you think I'd tell you that, are you?" A sinister mechanical laugh came through the phone. "The next 24 hours will be quite important for you if you ever hope to see Beca Mitchell alive."
And then the phone clicked silent. Chloe, Aubrey and Jesse glancing at each other, silently thinking of scenarios and plans.
"We just have to find the boat." Chloe said simply as she looked around the docks frantically.
"We have no idea which one she could possibly be on." Jesse glanced around with her. "We can't just commandeer boats."
"I found the ship!" Emily interjected as she typed rapidly on her laptop. "Freighter S-1134-X02." She continued typing for more information. "Captain Elias Baumann and crew of 15. Transporting various heavy machinery from New York to...Germany." Emily stopped typing and looked at the three agents around her.
"Germany?" Chloe's heart thumped a little harder in her chest.
"They left port about ten minutes ago. Probably why they felt so confident calling you." Emily said as she started to see about hacking in to see its route.
"Tell our pilot to get ready to take us to the closest airport in Germany." Chloe looked at Aubrey who was already nodding and putting her phone to her ear.
Kommissar. It had to be.
And all Chloe could see was red.